How do I deal with duplicate data from iCloud locally?

[Dirtyharry50]

I purchased the 200 gigs plan thinking it would give me elbow room for the usual purposes of iCloud but I also had another purpose in mind. I wanted to copy up to iCloud some folders just for backup which I also have stored on an external drive. I do not want these files taking up space on my startup disk.

I have just learned that everything I put on iCloud drive lives locally too in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/

This is a problem. I don't want the stuff locally but if I try to remove it locally from that folder, it'll get deleted off iCloud drive as well. I understand the reasoning here, to maintain access if the internet is down and for everyday data that's a good thing. For backing stuff up as archives it is not.

For example, I'd like to keep a backup of my Movies folder on iCloud drive. These are movies from various sources that live in various folders within that folder. I don't need them in duplicate on my startup drive but if I copy them over to iCloud that is just what I get.

Any ideas on how to solve this problem? I thought maybe an alias would work nicely but no. If I make an alias in the local folder (Mobile Documents) and copy it outside that folder then open it, the view is empty. If I make an alias in iCloud itself via the finder and move it to the desktop or if I copy the same alias in either case it does not work. I open the alias and nothing is displayed.

I don't want to access this data from iCloud when I have it locally either given its size.

Similarly, I thought it would be nice to save 50 gigs worth of iTunes library to iCloud as well. I am aware of iTunes Match but given its issues, the very first thing I'd want to do before using it is to have redundant backups of my iTunes library and I thought iCloud would be an excellent place for one of them. However, I do not want that at the expense of 50 wasted gigs of duplicate data on my startup drive.

I hope that all made sense. I found it confusing at first until I understood this doesn't work the way I was expecting it to. I didn't expect local access without an internet connection. I wish there was a way to specify if you want that option on a per folder basis in iCloud. That would be nice.

 

[d21mike]

You are not alone. Many others have voiced the same thing. I personally do not have that issue but in the past I used the Microsoft OneDrive (called something else when I used it) and you could selective say if you wanted a local copy and on what computer and it was at the folder level. Hopefully Apple will add this.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

You are not alone. Many others have voiced the same thing. I personally do not have that issue but in the past I used the Microsoft OneDrive (called something else when I used it) and you could selective say if you wanted a local copy and on what computer and it was at the folder level. Hopefully Apple will add this.

Yeah, that would be nice. Maybe I will look into another alternative for now then for the data I want archived.

It would be nice too if they provided an indicator of total upload progress for a folder rather than just on a file by file basis. It would also be nice if there was a way to pause an upload. I note my internet connection performs so slowly for other tasks when an upload of any size is taking place that it isn't worth bothering to browse the web or whatever. Being able to toggle uploading on and off at will would be a good thing as such.

 

[d21mike]

I would take a look at MS OneDrive. I believe there is a Mac Client. But I have not used it in a long time.

 

[Dirtyharry50]

I would take a look at MS OneDrive. I believe there is a Mac Client. But I have not used it in a long time.

App store reviews for it are awful in large numbers. Apparently it has various bugs, issues in its current incarnation. It's just as well really. I have this thing about Microsoft. ;-)

It's amazing to me how difficult it is to find information about this simple and I would think at least somewhat common use of cloud storage wherever I looked for it.

Anyway, it appears Google Drive will do this for cheap money until Apple hopefully implements this feature in the future if they do at all.

 

[RabidMacFan]

Hi, just two points.

1. If you copy your files to "the cloud" then delete them from your Mac, that is not a backup. A backup is when you have one file on your computer, and a copy of it somewhere else.

2. Unfortunately, iCloud drive is not meant for off-site storage. iCloud drive is kind of meant just for syncing files so that they can be shared between all your Apple devices, even when you are offline. You'll need to use something like Dropbox or OneDrive for off-site storage you can access from your devices.

 

[gpspad]

2. Unfortunately, iCloud drive is not meant for off-site storage. iCloud drive is kind of meant just for syncing files so that they can be shared between all your Apple devices, even when you are offline. You'll need to use something like Dropbox or OneDrive for off-site storage you can access from your devices.

Thanks for that one, I think i have been thinking of it incorrectly. Your way makes more sense.

Hopefully it will lead to a way for me to make a quick backup of all the photos in one place. Keep the bulk of the photos online, then maybe make a folder called archive and export/move photos there. Then backup that dierctory.

 

[d21mike]

1. If you copy your files to "the cloud" then delete them from your Mac, that is not a backup. A backup is when you have one file on your computer, and a copy of it somewhere else.

When I used this feature I considered it an extra backup. And I Zipped the files I put there. But, it was nice to be able to keep those Zip files on only some of my computers. So was nice to say which computers had the copy of the Zip Files. I was Syncing to about 3 computers at the time and had different logic for different backups.

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When I used this feature I considered it an extra backup. And I Zipped the files I put there. But, it was nice to be able to keep those Zip files on only some of my computers. So was nice to say which computers had the copy of the Zip Files. I was Syncing to about 3 computers at the time and had different logic for different backups.

But now I put everything in iCloud including the new Photos App. Plus I have a NAS Backup for somethings and I also use Time Machine for everything on all of my Mac's. Hard to use too much backups.